Health & Nutrition

BusinessThrives (Department of Health & Mental Hygiene)

Each year, New York City's economy loses billions of dollars because of unaddressed mental health challenges. The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene launched BusinessThrives to engage New York City businesses in creating workplaces that embrace and invest in mental health and emotional wellness. BusinessThrives is convening a Learning Network of corporate executives and mental health experts to develop resources and services that create internal culture change and to implement best practices in workplace-based mental health promotion.

ThriveNYC (Department of Health and Mental Hygiene)

ThriveNYC: A Mental Health Roadmap for All is New York City's plan of action to guide the city toward a more effective and holistic mental health system, one that promotes mental health, prevents illness, and detects problems early, in addition to treating conditions. Driven by Mayor's Fund Board Chair Chirlane McCray, ThriveNYC aims to ensure New Yorkers can get the treatment that they need – and lays out an approach that will improve the mental well-being of all New Yorkers. The Roadmap's 54 initiatives represent a total commitment of more than $850 million over the next four years, including $305 million in new commitments of both public and private dollars. The Mayor's Fund and its private partners helped to support the construction of the Roadmap, and will continue to assist in the execution of its principles, furthering the mental well-being of New Yorkers.

Building Healthy Communities (Mayor's Office of Strategic Partnerships and the Fund for Public Health in New York)

Many higher-poverty neighborhoods have historically been neglected from public investment in safe open spaces, access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity. Many of these same communities continue to report high rates of crime and equally high rates of obesity, diabetes and chronic disease. To improve health outcomes in these communities, the de Blasio administration has launched the Building Healthy Communities initiative, a multi-million dollar public-private partnership committed to taking an innovative, holistic approach to increasing access to healthy food, increasing opportunities for physical activity and promoting public safety in 12 densely populated and underserved neighborhoods: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Canarsie, Central Harlem, Corona, East Harlem, Flushing, Hunts Point, Mariners Harbor, Morrisania, Mott Haven and Stapleton. Building Healthy Communities will achieve its goals by organizing private sector partners, nonprofit organizations like GrowNYC and 10 city agencies in transforming existing public spaces and developing new and exciting programming that can impact the health and wellbeing of all of the targeted neighborhoods.

Connections To Care (Center for Economic Opportunity, Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, & Corporation for National & Community Service)

One in five New Yorkers have reported a time in the last year when they needed, but did not receive, mental health treatment. In partnership with the Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City launched Connections to Care to embed mental health support in communities serving low-income populations with unmet mental health needs. Connections to Care trains non-clinical staff at 15 community non-profit organizations to provide mental health services—such as screening and responding to someone experiencing a mental health crisis—and evaluates the impact of these services on the mental health of participants and their success with other social services provided by the non-profit organization.